One here in Idaho, I know there are more........I have contacts with one in CA, one in NY, MI and the VI. Great boat, I really enjoy it. I'm still getting the tuning down,,,,,,,,,,,and probably will be for quite some time. I hope to race it outside of ID this year. Any other questions, just fire away!!

In Holland the class is slowly, but steadily growing. In Noordwijk Hans van Nes, our dutch Hobie dealer sold 4 new boats this year. At my home club in Katwijk, 5km from Noordwijk we have three, including a novice sailer with a one year old second hand boat. Along the rest of our 50 km strip of beach along the dutch coast each club has one or more, including some very active in Scheveningen, all of them Hobie 17 veterans.
This is a profile of the typical dutch FX sailor:
He is a former Inter 17 / Prindle 15 sailor (we still have them in Holland) or a former Formula 20 sailor, finding his boat way to expensive

Matt, you know this boat? My kids won't sail with me anymore because they sail together now, and some of the D7 guys are in the same 'boat' as me. FX/ONE seems logical if we want high performance ( I know, the way we were moving down wind in NY seemed like High performance, but I wanna go faster than that!!) and the option to add a person if you want to makes it pretty seductive. Thoughts?
cw

No, actually, the boat is for me. There are 5 or 6 of us out here thinking about picking them up, uni-rig with a spi. It will be a year or so away, but we're making tentative plans right now. We want to order the boats the most common way they are rigged too. I wonder if many are ordered with jib kits, or left uni-rig. How are they raced in Europe?
Kids are sailing the 16, and may dable on the 20 a bit.

I tell you what it sure is a sweet looking boat. Mebbe in a few years when I have the $$$... Does the FXOne have a class (other than its own) it races in? Just curious. I'd love to hop on one of those some time and see what it can do.

I don't recall exactly where in MI. I do recall seeing the results on US Sailing for the Alter Cup qualifier.

As far as how the boats are run, I think the majority are main and spin only. Honestly, the boat is pretty easy to run this way singlehanded. The snuffer is without doubt the way to go. Wave piercing hulls are Sssswwweeettt. Coming from an 18 and sailing in the Gorge, the difference is night and day. These hulls just slice right through everything without a noticeable drop in speed. It has to be felt to be understood. I enjoy sailing in rough stuff much more and look forward to punching through chop/swells to bring a smile to my face . I'm toying with adding a bigger chute for the light days, but I really have no complaints. Setup is pretty easy, sailing is awesome.......smile the whole time!! It's taken apart for the winter, but if anyone wants pix in the spring, just say the word. It'd be great to get a class going, I'd for sure travel to race.

I have a bunch of questions about the FX one. What was the process like for ordering the boat, how long did it take? How about setup time with the spi. - how long does it take to go from mast down on the trailer to shoving off and locking down rudders? I live about 45 min from the lake (two hours to the beach) and don't want to spend another hour putting the boat together. I got to where I could put my H17 together in less than 30 min. How is it sailing with the spi.? I've sailed the 17 and 20 foot spinnaker boats from that other company and found it a breeze to set and douse, even the 17 footer singlehanded was easy, mostly because the helm was so neutral I cound let go of the tiller and use both hands. If I could have similar experience on the FX one I would be very happy. I really want to stay with Hobie but not having a boat nearby to test sail makes it a little scary. Please put my mind at ease and tell me this thing sails like dream. Feel free to email me. snltuttle@adelphia.net

I was fortunate enough to find a used FX-1, thus I don't know the process of ordering one from the dealer. The previous owner had a big hoopla to go through with setup and I cut the time down considerably with a few modifications. The spin only adds about 5 minutes or so to the whole setup time, it really isn't bad at all. I do take almost everything off when I trailer, so the time could be cut down a little further still. I allow about 45 mins for setup. I can do it faster, but I also worry about forgetting something if I rush it.

Sailing singlehanded with the spin is easy! I don't know why people make a big fuss about it. The snuffer allows the process to be cake. I usually have the spin up within 3 boatlengths of the windward mark and douse within two boatlengths. As long as you plan ahead a little, it's easy. The actual sailing is easy too. In reality, it's not much different than sailing upwind. One hand on the tiller, one on the sheet. I cleat the main and bunch the mainsheet back by the rear crossbar and forget about it until I'm ready to head upwind. Use the main as a blanket for the spin and douse. I had several people tell me there was no way I'd be able to do it myself. It took them one time of seeing me do it and they haven't said a word since other than......"slick". Their eyes were pretty wide when I had the chute up in a few seconds and was blasting down the lake.

I need to play with the mast rake a little next season to get to a neutral helm, but I'm pretty confident this is all it will take. I think it's hard to compare the ride to the 17, it's completely different, more responsive, faster overall, quicker acceleration and tacks on a dime. After sailing it just a few times, I realized I could go back to the old monohull tactic of tacking on shifts, something that can't even be thought of with most other cats.

One advantage I had was being able to test sail the boat before I bought it, since it was used. It took me about five minutes to make up my mind. The acceleration is noticeable and the boat just wants to get up and go. A sweet ride for sure. I'm hoping one of the members in our club is going to get a F18, then I'll be able to tell you how it compares.